>> New fears were expressed on
Thursday that the Marburg virus had reached South African soil when a
child in Morningside Clinic in Johannesburg showed symptoms of the
infection.

Steps have been taken to
prepare provincial hospitals in case haemorrhagic fever is diagnosed.

Solly Mabotha, spokesperson
of the national health department, said isolation wards had been
prepared in hospitals in all nine provinces and health practitioners
had been thoroughly briefed on the symptoms of haemorrhagic fever.

The deadly virus has killed
159 people in Angola, so far, and a man is believed to have died of it
in South Africa.

Mabotha said the child "has
ties with Angola".

He said, however, that a
thorough investigation had indicated that she did not show symptoms of
the untreatable haemorrhagic fever, which is caused by the Marburg
virus.

There is no laboratory in
South Africa that can perform tests for the Marburg virus, it was
learned on Thursday. <<

Samples from both patients were sent to the CDC for testing.
There seems to be a misconception on treatment. There is no
treatment for the virus, so progression to hemorrhaging is not an
indicator of prospects for recovery. So far in Angola, the case
fatality rate is at
or near 100% regardless of when the patient is admitted.
Early signs of infection are not very specific, but if the early signs
are signaling Marburg, the prognosis is poor, especially if the
infection was in Angola.

If the child is positive, there would be contact issues with passengers
on the plane if the child recently arrived from Angola. If the
child was infected in South Africa, then there would be contact issues
with whoever recently arrived from Angola.

As the numbers increase in Angola, especially in Luanda, it will become
increasingly difficult to avoid exporting the virus via passengers
leaving Luanda. The movement out of Uige seems to have spread the
virus quite widely, and the infected cases in Angola have exploded
to 200.